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Juan Gabriel Vasquezbooks include the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin award winner and national bestseller, The Sound of Things Falling, as well as the award-winning The Informers and The Secret History of Costaguana.

The Forest for the Trees (Revised and Updated)

An Editor’s Advice to Writers

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Overview

Quickly established as an essential and enduring companion for aspiring writers when it was first published, Betsy Lerner’s sharp, funny, and insightful guide has been meticulously updated and revised to address the dramatic changes that have reshaped the publishing industry in the decade since. From blank page to first glowing (or gutting) review, Betsy Lerner is a knowing and sympathetic coach who helps writers discover how they can be more productive in the creative process and how they can better their odds of not only getting published, but getting published well. This is an essential trove of advice for writers and an indispensable user’s manual to both the inner life of the writer and the increasingly anxious place where art and commerce meet: the boardrooms and cubicles of the publishing house.

Praise

“With an early promise not to ‘Strunk you over the head with rules about style,’ Lerner… provides inspiring, uncondescending advice for writers.” –Entertainment Weekly

“[Lerner] doesn’t preach on how to write a book but rather tries to help writers and would-be authors cope with such problems as ‘being alone with it.’ It’s a survival course. She wants to help the writer who cannot get started embark, the writer stalled between projects ignite. She wants you to be an effective ‘self-promoter’ and not a ‘self-saboteur.’ The book is also an affirmation that late bloomers can become successful writers.” –The New York Times

“[Lerner] has a wicked sense of humor. But don’t think that means her book isn’t brilliant. It is. Cleverly disguised as a sensible reference work, [this] is in fact a riveting safari through the wilds of the writer’s brain, as well as an honest and unpatronizing guide to publishing from every angle. Its tone is singularly authoritative, compassionate, irreverent, and unafraid. Unquestionably a gift to writers of every persuasion.” –Newsday

“Betsy Lerner’s style is economical and witty. The Forest for the Trees should become a permanent part of any writer’s or editor’s personal library.” –The Seattle Times

“Solid, insider advice on every step of the publishing process… With this book, Betsy Lerner becomes what every writer hopes for—a friend in the business.” –Chicago Tribune

“Lerner describes the self-promoter, the natural, the wicked child, and the downright mentally ill. She explains the ambivalence that almost every writer feels about writing for oneself verses writing for the public… Her beautifully written book of observations and advice seems to be coming from a friend.” –Columbia Journalism Review